LICENSED moneylenders face the prospects of tighter lending rules from late next year.

The authorities are looking to set up a Moneylenders Credit Bureau by then, which moneylenders must use to run compulsory credit checks on potential borrowers.

Lending caps will kick in a year later. This means the total amount a person can borrow will be fixed, regardless of how many moneylenders he borrows from.

It is understood that these details were disclosed by the Law Ministry when it sought views from interested parties on the credit bureau last week.

But the ministry declined to give further details.

A ministry spokesman said: "We are currently reviewing the moneylending regulatory regime and we will share more information when ready."

The setting up of the bureau was first announced by Senior Minister of State for Law Indranee Rajah in Parliament last month, when the ministry's annual budget was debated.

Besides using the bureau to curb lending, the authorities are likely to use the data collected to track industry trends and improve controls over the sector, said a source, adding that no taxpayer money will be involved in setting up and running the bureau.

The ministry is understood to have made clear to prospective operators that they would bear the full cost of setting up and running the bureau, by charging moneylenders and borrowers.

Although licensed moneylenders give out less than 1% of consumer loans, the sector has come under recent fire for high interest rates and service fees.

Several MPs such as David Ong, Lim Biow Chuan and Zainal Sapari have called for tighter controls on these moneylenders in the past months, noting late payment interests amounted to a whopping 40% per week.

The ministry said it has stopped issuing new licences for moneylenders since 2012 and safeguards like interest rate caps exist for borrowers earning less than S$30,000 (RM780,000) a year.

There were 209 licensed moneylenders as at 2012.

David Poh, president of the Moneylenders' Association of Singapore which has more than 150 members, said compulsory credit checks will not pose problems for the industry.

"Some of us are already doing it," he said. — The Straits Times / Asia News Network

JINDO: The captain and crew of a South Korean ferry that capsized with hundreds of children on board acted in a way "tantamount to murder", says President Park Geun-hye, as four more crew members are arrested and the death toll rises to 80.

Park's denunciation, in which she vowed to hold all those responsible for the disaster "criminally accountable", followed the release of a transcript showing the panic and indecision that paralysed decision-making on the bridge as the ship listed and sank on Wednesday morning.

The confirmed death toll jumped to 80 as divers stepped up the recovery of bodies from inside the 6,825-tonne Sewol, but 222 people remained unaccounted for.

"The actions of the captain and some crew members were utterly incomprehensible, unacceptable and tantamount to murder," Park said in a meeting with senior aides yesterday.

"Not only my heart, but the hearts of all South Koreans have been broken and filled with shock and anger," said Park, who was heckled on Thursday when she met relatives of the hundreds of passengers still missing – most of them schoolchildren.

The families have criticised the official response to the disaster, saying the initial rescue effort was inadequate and mismanaged.

The president said it was increasingly clear that Captain Lee Joon-seok had unnecessarily delayed the evacuation of passengers as the ferry started sinking, and then "deserted them" by escaping with most of his crew members.

"This is utterly unimaginable, legally and ethically," she said.

Lee was arrested on Saturday along with a helmsman and the ship's relatively inexperienced third officer, who was in charge of the bridge when the ship first ran into trouble.

Three more officers and an engineer were detained by police yesterday and prosecutors said they could face similar charges of criminal negligence and deserting passengers.

A transcript of the final radio communications between the Sewol and marine traffic control suggested a scene of total confusion as the vessel listed sharply to one side.

In the end, the evacuation order was only given around 40 minutes after the ship ran into trouble, by which time it was listing so heavily that escape was almost impossible.

"Precious minutes just wasted," was the front page verdict of the Dong-A Ilbo daily yesterday.

Realistic hopes of finding survivors have disappeared, but families of the missing still oppose the use of heavy cranes to lift the ship before divers have searched every section.

Of the 476 people on board the Sewol, 352 were students from the Danwon High School in Ansan city just south of Seoul, who were on an organised trip to the holiday island of Jeju. — AFP

TOKYO: Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe sent a gift to the controversial Yasukuni war shrine, sparking a Chinese charge that he was offering "a slap in the face" to US President Barack Obama days ahead of his visit.

The unapologetically nationalist Abe donated a sacred masakaki tree to coincide with the start of a three-day festival, a shrine official said.

The sending of a gift has been seen as a sign that Abe does not intend to go to the shrine – as he did on Dec 26, sparking fury in Asia and earning him a diplomatic slap on the wrist from the United States.

Yasukuni Shrine honours Japan's war dead, including some senior military and political figures convicted of serious crimes in the wake of the country's World War II defeat.

That, and the accompanying museum –which paints Japan as a frustrated liberator of Asia and victim of World War II – makes it controversial, especially in China and South Korea, where it is seen as a symbol of Japan's lack of penitence.

Abe and other nationalists say the shrine is merely a place to remember fallen soldiers. They compare it with Arlington National Cemetery in the United States.

Masaru Ikei, an expert on Japanese diplomacy and professor emeritus at Keio University, said that with Obama due to arrive on tomorrow for a state visit, Abe was always likely to stay away from the shrine.

"The prime minister does not want to worsen ties with China and South Korea before President Obama's visit, but he does want to maintain his creed that he should pray for the war dead," he said.

Ikei said Washington's public and slightly unexpected rebuke after his last visit meant Abe "will not be able to visit the shrine again for a while".

Japan's chief government spokesman Yoshihide Suga yesterday sought to play down Abe's shrine gift, saying the government does not comment as the offering was "made in his capacity as a private person".

Asked about possible ramifications on the upcoming meeting between Abe and Obama, Suga said: "It won't affect the summit at all."

But Beijing offered a markedly different interpretation, lambasting the offering as "yet another provocative move detrimental to regional stability".

Coming just ahead of Obama's visit, "Abe's donation is nothing short of a slap in the face of the leader of Japan's closest ally," China's official news agency Xinhua said in a commentary. — AFP

The Wind Rises is an unusual departure for beloved Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki, a self-identified pacifist.

In August last year, multitudes of Japanese users tweeted the word "balus" while watching a TV broadcast of director Hayao Miyazaki's 1986 animated movie, Castle In The Sky.

In an indicator of Miyazaki's cultural influence in his high-tech homeland, the made-up word, which translates roughly as "destruction," garnered more tweets per second (143,199) than such buzzed about events as the birth of Prince William's son.

Tellingly, the soft-spoken, white-haired grandfather whose work inspired this social media frenzy doesn't use a cellphone or the Internet – "It's jarring and interrupts," Miyazaki said – and he has practiced his craft for the last 50 years, wielding that most old-fashioned of tools, a pencil.

Now, as the world around him moves ever faster, Miyazaki has announced plans to slow down. The 72-year-old director says his latest film, The Wind Rises, will be his last.

"Everybody is younger than me," he said, speaking by phone recently from his Tokyo studio through a translator. "They don't understand what it's like to be old. I've learned a lot of things by being 72, and what I've learned is that I don't have a lot of time."

The Wind Rises is a departure for Miyazaki. Normally, his family-friendly fantasies such as Howl's Moving Castle, My Neighbor Totoro and Oscar winner Spirited Away are set in magical realms populated by wizards, witches and sprites. They're often subtle paeans for pacifism and odes to nature built around strong and clever female characters.

The Wind Rises, by contrast, is set in pre-World War II Japan and tells the story of a real man, Jiro Horikoshi, who designed the Zero fighter plane.

The film, which is based on a short story by Japanese poet Hori Tatsuo, depicts an era when Japan faced some of the same problems that have plagued the country in recent years, including a devastating earthquake and economic stagnation.

Miyazaki had just finished storyboarding a sequence of Japan's 1923 earthquake, which set Tokyo afire, when the powerful 2011 temblor hit.

"I worked on sci-fi material before, imagining what would happen in the future, but when the earthquake happened two years ago, I felt, 'Oh no, the actual reality of the world has caught up with me'," he said.

"When we could see the changes of the times, I didn't feel I could make some fun fantasy."

Miyazaki, whose father made rudders for the Zero planes, also shows the artistry that went into building the elegant but deadly aircraft, scores of which would ultimately end up attacking Pearl Harbor.

It's an unusual choice of material for a self-identified pacifist, who stayed home from the Oscars when he won for Spirited Away, because, as he later told a Los Angeles Times reporter, "I didn't want to visit a country that was bombing Iraq."

"Jiro Horikoshi is also a pacifist," Miyazaki said, explaining this seeming contradiction. "Because of the times he was living in, the only thing he was allowed to make was a fighter airplane. I can't accuse my father or Horikoshi of doing the wrong thing when they had to live in such dangerous times."

Hayao Miyazaki has a smile that lights up his whole face. – AFP

In Japan, Miyazaki has taken his anti-war stance beyond the cinema. In June last year, he penned an essay objecting to the new prime minister's plan to amend the country's constitution allowing for the building of a full-fledged military. Some conservatives labeled him "anti-Japanese" and a "traitor".

The sharp response surprised him. "I feel that there is something of a smell of war," Miyazaki said. "I'm appalled at the outdated nationalism."

The set-to is all the more remarkable given Miyazaki's revered stature in his home country.

Years ago, John Lasseter was walking with the director near his studio in Tokyo when a group of schoolgirls saw Miyazaki and approached him. With his shock of white hair and broad smile, Miyazaki is instantly recognised there – Lasseter likens the director to one of his best-known characters, a grinning, cat-shaped bus from My Neighbor Totoro.

"He's got the smile that is infectious. His cheeks rise up into his eyes," said Lasseter, the chief creative officer of Disney and Pixar Animation Studios and a longtime friend and admirer of Miyazaki's. "He's so unassuming."

Miyazaki drew little bunnies from Totoro on the schoolgirls' hands, Lasseter said. "What is amazing to see is what he means to the people of Japan," he said.

With his status also comes the burden of responsibility, particularly to the hundreds employed at his company, Studio Ghibli, including Miyazaki's son, Goro, who directed Ghibli's last film, From Up On Poppy Hill. The elder Miyazaki has said he hopes to leave some of that sense of duty behind in retirement, focusing instead on drawing his own manga (Japanese comic books) and producing short films for Studio Ghibli's museum.

"I'm just happy I don't have to think about my next movie," Miyazaki said. "I would rather go on my walks. There's a nursery next door to my studio and I can hear children, which I like very much."

Miyazaki is the best-known practitioner of the dwindling medium of hand-drawn animation, which seems likely to continue its long fade along with him.

He's also unusual for the gentle tone of his films. Even The Wind Rises, about the building of war machines, has placid sequences of young Horikoshi setting paper airplanes into flight.

Looking back, Miyazaki said he has some regrets. He wishes he'd drawn the character of Howl in Howl's Moving Castle more "sharp, pointed and devilish", for instance, but he wasn't willing to take the artistic risk at the time.

"I'm mad at myself," he said. "I did my best, given the circumstances. Even though I'm not satisfied with myself, I think I worked harder than others did." – Los Angeles Times/McClatchy-Tribune Information Services

It's a mad 'Mad' world as the final countdown begin to Don Draper's story.

Break out the cocktail glasses and mix up an Old Fashioned: Mad Men returns today for the first half of its seventh and final season. So what should we expect from our favourite ad men and women in the first batch of seven episodes? Aside from the usual daddy issues, meaningless flings and meditations on mortality, here are the seven biggest takeaways from Season 6:

Come together. When Peggy left Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce at the end of Season 5 for the greener pastures of Cutler Gleason & Chaough, many fans worried they'd see less of the brash secretary-turned-copy chief. But fear not! After Don fires Jaguar and SCDP loses the Vicks account, Don proposes to Ted that their two agencies merge in hopes of winning over Chevrolet. A visibly irritated Peggy writes up a press release announcing the merger and the agency is swiftly renamed Sterling Cooper & Partners.

Peggy wears the pants. Speaking of Peggy, the girl can't catch a break when it comes to her love life. Things were looking up when she bought an apartment and moved in with her boyfriend, Abe. That is, until she thought he was an intruder and accidentally stabbed him one night (naturally, he broke up with her in the ambulance). And after she and Ted finally acted on their feelings for each other, Ted told Peggy he was moving to California with his family to help manage the new Sunkist account.

It's not all bad news for Ms Olson, though: When Don is forced to take a leave of absence from the agency (more on that later), Peggy fills in for him as creative director. As she sits down at his desk and stares out the window, her silhouette undeniably mirrors the show's iconic artwork.

"Not great, Bob." Ah, remember the good ol' days of the Bob Benson conspiracy theories? He may not have been Peggy's time-travelling son as some predicted, but the mysterious ad man with a false identity proved to be an interesting parallel to Don Draper (only with shorter shorts).

Sure, he doesn't have fans in Roger (who disapproves of his relationship with Joan), or Pete (whom he unsuccessfully tries to seduce), but we do see him celebrating Thanksgiving with Joan and her infant son at the end of last season's finale. Maybe there's still more to learn about Bob.

Sally gets an eyeful. Let's all pitch in for Sally's therapy bills — she's sure going to need it. In what was easily last season's most upsetting moment for viewers, Sally walks in on Don and his mistress Sylvia having sex. Scarred and angry at her father, Sally visits Miss Porter's boarding school (where she drinks for the first time) and gets accepted, only to be suspended after trying to buy beer with a fake ID. She does bond with Betty in her own brooding way, sharing a cigarette with her mother and making the painful confession that "my father never gave me anything". Ouch.

Going back to Cali. It looks like SC&P is West Coast-bound. When Sunkist requested that someone from the agency work with them in Los Angeles, Don jumped at the opportunity, prompting Megan to quit her soap-opera job to pursue a Hollywood career. But when Ted asked to go instead — in hopes of keeping his marriage intact and distancing himself from Peggy — Don backed down, upsetting Megan and leaving a giant question mark about the fate of their already troubled union.

Joining Ted for the ride is Pete, now estranged from his wife, Trudy, and whose mother died (or more likely, was killed) aboard a cruise ship at the end of last season.

Textbook history. Season Six managed to pack a lot of historical events into 13 episodes. Martin Luther King Jr and Robert F Kennedy were both assassinated, the Vietnam War threatened to take away Sylvia's son (who returned his draft card in protest), and issues of civil rights and race riots were addressed (if only briefly represented by black secretary Dawn). As the series moves into 1969, expect more history (the Stonewall gay-rights riots?), more drugs (Don smoked hashish last season) and more colourful attire (as evidenced by the Season 7 promotional images).

Road to redemption. Don has been in a downward spiral since the series began, but last season may have painted the bleakest picture yet of our tortured anti-hero. Often visibly unwell and out of step with the rest of the agency, he continued to alienate the few left who cared about him (Megan, Sally, and even Betty whom he slept with while visiting Bobby's summer camp, but gave him the cold shoulder the next morning). Not to mention the frequent, on-the-nose allusions to Don's seemingly imminent death.

But then, an epiphany: After spending a night in jail for drunkenly punching a minister in a bar, he vows to Megan he'll clean up his act. And in a well-intentioned confession to Hershey executives that (unsurprisingly) backfires, he reveals he was an orphan who grew up in a brothel and had his virginity taken by a hooker ... not the kind of anecdote that's going to help sell candy bars. As a result, Roger tells Don that he needs to take a leave of absence from the firm to "regroup."

In the episode's final scene, Don brings his three children to his now-dilapidated childhood home, sharing a knowing glance with Sally as Joni Mitchell's Both Sides, Now kicks in and leaving fans with a glimmer of hope going into tonight's premiere. — USA Today/McClatchy-Tribune Information Services

CALGARY/VANCOUVER: Six years after applying to build the Keystone XL pipeline, Canada's frustrated oil industry appears steadfast in its support of the plan, even though Washington has again delayed a decision on whether to approve the politically-charged project.

The reason is simple: A massive new pipeline to the US Gulf Coast remains the most elegant solution for producers looking to export burgeoning supplies of crude from Canada's oil sands to the US.

TransCanada Corp's US$5.4bil pipeline would seamlessly pump enough crude from Alberta to Texas to meet 4% of total US demand.

"We're definitely supportive of the project," said Brad Bellows, a spokesman for MEG Energy Corp, which produces crude from Alberta's oil sands though it has not committed to ship on Keystone. "It's good for the whole circulatory system of the energy industry."

That is not to say the latest setback for the ambitious project sits well with its backers. And the decision could build momentum behind a host of other pipelines proposals as well as plans to expand shipments of oil by rail.

But those options, as currently configured, could only supplement, not replace, the export capacity of the massive Keystone project, experts say.

"There's never certainty that any one pipeline will be approved. We've made commitments to the East Coast, the Gulf Coast and the West Coast, plus rail," said Rhona DelFrari, a spokeswoman for Cenovus Energy Inc, one of the largest developers of Alberta's massive oil sands reserves. "There's always a Plan B and a Plan C as well."

DISAPPOINTED AND FRUSTRATED

Citing uncertainty over Keystone's route because of a legal dispute in Nebraska, the Obama administration said on Friday it would allow more time for federal agencies to weigh in on the project. As a result, it is likely a decision will not occur before November elections.

In response, TransCanada said it was "disappointed and frustrated" with the fresh delay, which comes more than five years after it first applied to build the pipelines.

"Another delay is inexplicable," Russ Girling, the company's chief executive officer, said. He pointed out that the first leg of the Keystone pipeline, which runs from Hardisty, Alberta, to Cushing, Oklahoma, took only 21 months to study and approve.

Keystone XL, which could start operating two years after it gets a final approval, would run from Alberta to Steele City, Nebraska, where it will meet the project's southern stretch.

Despite the latest setback, none of the companies that have signed up for space on the line have backed out. Indeed, TransCanada says that it has a waiting list of companies keen to sign up.

The line's shippers have remained loyal in part because they have signed contracts. More importantly, rising Canadian production means more lines are already needed.

In 2008, when Keystone XL was first proposed, Canada's exported 1.1 million barrels of crude per day to the US. This year, exports are nearing 2.7 million bpd on higher oil sands production and another million bpd more is expected over the next few years, according to industry data.

ALTERNATIVES

To be sure, projects that would complement or perhaps even help make up for a Keystone rejection have proliferated.

Taking advantage of tight pipeline capacity, rail terminals are expanding so quickly they could ferry more than 1 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude to US refiners in two years, more than Keystone's 830,000-bpd capacity, a survey has shown.

TransCanada itself may also be able to speed up efforts to build the 1.1 million-bpd Energy East pipeline, ranking as Canada's largest, to take Alberta crude oil to refineries and export ports in Quebec and New Brunswick. The project would sidestep the US political wrangle that has ensnared Keystone.

"In the worst case scenario, where Keystone XL is denied ... we actually imagine that the Energy East project is accelerated and by accelerated, I mean they get it online around 2017," David McColl, an analyst with Morningstar Inc.

With refiners in Canada's traditional Midwest market already sated with crude, Keystone XL is seen as an important conduit for getting crude to the Gulf Coast, where it can supply the largest cluster of refineries in the S.

Most have turned to shipping crude by rail-tanker. Once a sideline for getting oil to market, producers such as Canadian Natural Resources Ltd, Suncor Energy Inc and MEG are pouring investment into more costly crude-by-rail infrastructure in an attempt to bridge the gap.

"Rail coming out of Western Canada is going to become more and more important in the near term, and producers and midstream companies are already really aggressively moving to increase capacity for rail," said McColl.

PIPELINES PREFERRED

Still, rail is an expensive option. A host of options that skip the US entirely have won the support of Canadian producers anxious to find better-paying alternatives.

"Our focus will continue to be on supporting a portfolio of market access options," said David Collyer, president of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, a lobby group representing the country's largest oil producers.

Both Enbridge Inc and Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP are planning lines to take landlocked Alberta crude to export ports on the Pacific.

Though it faces opposition from aboriginal and environmental groups, Enbridge's Northern Gateway line would carry oil sands crude to the port of Kitimat, British Columbia. Regulators have already cleared the project. It awaits final approval from the Canadian government.

Kinder Morgan plans to nearly triple the capacity of its existing Trans Mountain pipeline to carry 890,000 barrels per day from Edmonton to Vancouver, but the project is not slated to complete regulatory hearings until mid-2015. – Reuters

KUALA LUMPUR: The following factors are likely to influence Malaysian palm oil futures and other vegetable oil markets on Tuesday.

FUNDAMENTALS
* Malaysian palm oil futures ended higher on Monday after two days of losses, as
investors pinned hopes for an increase in demand ahead of a major Muslim
festival despite a surprise drop in exports in the first 20 days of the
month.
* U.S. wheat futures fell the most in more than a year on Monday as rains
expected in the drought-stricken U.S. Plains raised hopes for the upcoming
harvest.
* Brent crude oil strengthened slightly while U.S. crude futures were briefly
supported by positive economic data on Monday but prices were range-bound in low
volumes following Easter Sunday with no significant escalation in tensions over
Ukraine.

MARKET NEWS
* Asian shares were supported on Tuesday after Wall Street stocks extended gains
into a fifth day, though investors continued to see tensions in Ukraine as a
threat to risk appetite.

A slim volume of intense short stories invites a second, maybe even a third, reading.

LORRIE Moore is an American writer. Although she has published three novels, she is better known for her short stories. She is the winner of numerous literary awards, including the O. Henry Award, The Irish Times International Fiction Prize for her collection of short stories, Birds Of America, and the REA Award for the Short Story. Bark is her fifth collection of short stories.

There are only eight stories in this collection, half of which have already been published elsewhere, which makes for quite a slim volume. With so few stories you might initially think that you don't get much bang for your buck – or book, as the case may be – but bang is exactly what you get.

Most of these stories hit the ground running, and you better start running too or you'll find it hard keep up. Some of the stories are paced at a breakneck, frenetic rush that rarely pauses for breath – one can't help wondering how much caffeine was involved in the writing process.

These stories are predominantly character driven. Apart from brief descriptions that conjure up some soulless urban or suburban setting, there is very little sense of place. These are principally stories about the difficulties and joys, but mostly difficulties, of the characters' relationships: relationships between men and women, older men and younger women, women and their children, women and their women friends, between the living and the dead. There are relationships that are morally dubious, relationships that have ended, or are starting, others that might have been.

The writer bores inside her characters' heads and reveals their hopes and aspirations and fears and fragilities. Though you sense in her writing that there is an undercurrent of wry humour, it is most effective when it, quite unexpectedly, bursts to the surface. I had quite a few genuine laugh-out-loud moments, but they wouldn't have been as funny if she hadn't managed to build tension so successfully. She uses humour like a pressure valve letting off steam.

The stories are written in a world seen through world-weary eyes, eyes that have seen a lot, perhaps too much. Though there is no naïveté in her writing style, rather much the contrary, she still avoids falling into the trap of cynicism, although she hovers close to it at times. Ultimately though, there is a thread of idealism or hope in all these stories, a silver lining, perhaps neglected and tarnished silver, but even though it has lost some of its sheen, it is silver all the same.

Moore doesn't pull her punches, she doesn't mince her words. Instead she deftly fillets them right off the bone with precision and a razor sharp insight, and what at times is an irreverently malicious, but ultimately compassionate, gleam in her eye.

It's clear that Moore loves words and language. She plays around with rhymes, and puns on words and their different meanings. Like many of the stories, and the title of the book, there is a use of the inherent ambiguity and wordplay with the different meanings that words can have. While she doesn't quite take it to the extreme level of Will Self – in his deliberately ambiguously titled short story Scale, which manages to interweave many diverse meanings of the word into a coherent plot – there are similar explorations.

My favourite story in Bark is the longest, a story called Wings in which the female at first suspects, then hopes, then wishes her boyfriend would sell drugs. The title Wings might conjure up images of freedom and flight (an ambiguous word in itself) – and there is an element of both of those (or all three) in the story – but Moore also plays around with the architectural and theatrical aspects of the word.

In another story she puns on the months of March or May, and the book's title Bark, with its different definitions, comes back again and again through many of these stories. There is a line in the story Wings where one character referring to dogs says that "no bark is worse than a bite", forcing us to look at the old adage, for in truth, as she points out, even the worst bark is preferable to being bitten.

These eight stories resonate for a long time after reading. Due to their shortness and fast pace they might be hastily gobbled down, but despite that, they take some time to digest. The more I think of these stories after reading them, the more clever and intricate they seem. I suspect all these stories could bear at least a second reading without losing any of their power, a thesis I fully intend to put to the test. I enjoyed this book a lot and I think I will enjoy it even more when I read it next.

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Four South African actors talk about walking the talk, dancing the steps and singing the songs of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons.

After a successful run in South Korea, Jersey Boys is now showing at Istana Budaya in Kuala Lumpur. Organised by Milestone Production Sdn Bhd, the musical depicts the true-life story and remarkable rise to stardom of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons, one of the most iconic American pop groups in history.

The guys playing Valli, Tommy DeVito, Bob Gaudio and Nick Massi were all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed when we caught up with them before the opening night last week. Turns out they managed to fit in some sightseeing in the city centre after they arrived at the airport the weekend before, ahead of taking to the stage as The Four Seasons.

Grant Almirall, who plays the falsetto-voiced Valli, said that the appeal of the award-winning show is, at its core, the music. "The music of The Four Seasons have been around for so long. Growing up, we've all heard these songs somewhere before, so they are always in the back of our consciousness.

"But it is also a story that everyone can relate to – of brotherhood, family, betrayal and how you cope with such things," the 34-year-old said, adding that he finds Frankie's self-development, how he blossoms as a singer and person, the most intriguing thing about the character.

When asked how it felt playing someone who is still alive, Daniel Buys, 29, who takes on the role of Tommy DeVito (one of the founding members of The Four Seasons who is now in his 80s), confided that it was a little intimidating in the beginning.

"A little overwhelming as well, especially since these are characters who come from the wrong side of the tracks, people who were scary people for their times, or at least mixing with scary people," he said. "But once you know your lines and get into the swing of things, it stopped being about playing somebody that is still existing and became about just giving it your all and being honest with the story."

Kenneth Meyer, 27, who plays Bob Gaudio, agrees that it is the songs and story that will touch the audience. "You come to the show wanting to listen to the music, but you go home remembering the story. It's an emotional roller coaster, you will laugh and you will cry," he said.

Being part of the touring Jersey Boys group has been an amazing and unforgettable journey, he shared. And just like the original guys from decades past, these four lads have bonded over rehearsals, performances, and being on the road together for the past year and a half.

The biggest challenge for Meyer on Jersey Boys is the getting the choreography down to a T. "The harmony came kind of naturally, but when you put the dance moves to that, that's when it gets hard. It's very precise and you've got to do it at the same time with everyone else," Meyer said.

Emmanuel Castis, 38, who plays Nick Massi, added, "Jersey Boys is such a good story, you start with the highs and then you reach the lows. By the end, you are crying for Frankie and with Frankie. It is as entertaining as it is heartbreaking."

As if all that isn't reason enough to catch the show, he then grinned and added, "It is a really slick and well put-together show. And, hey, you'll be seeing four hot guys on stage!"

> 'Jersey Boys' is showing at Istana Budaya, Jalan Tun Razak, KL until April 27. Showtimes are 8.30pm nightly, with 3pm matinees on the weekends. For tickets, go to ticketcharge.com.my or call (03) 92228811. For more details, visit facebook.com/jerseyboys.malaysia. 'Jersey Boys' is organised by Milestone Production Sdn Bhd. The Star is the gold sponsor and Red FM is the official radio station. The Star readers can enjoy a 20% discount in all ticket categories. To do so, key in the promo code "STAR" when purchasing via ticketcharge.com.my or at outlets.

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Savar (Bangladesh) (AFP) - Minu Akhter has not slept properly for a year. Every time there's a noise, she wakes up fearing the roof will cave in. She can't go to the upper floors of a building in case the staircase gives way.

Since the collapse of Rana Plaza garment factory complex just outside the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka, the 23-year-old has struggled to control her emotions. Every time she thinks of her boyfriend, tears roll down her cheeks.

When the nine-storey building failed almost 12 months ago, Akhter was cutting clothing to make trousers at the doomed Phantom Apparels factory which had an order from an Italian retailer, she remembers.

On that morning, April 24, 2013, her boyfriend of five years Shahin was on the other side of the aisle on the fourth floor of the complex. They smiled as they started the day's gruelling 11-hour shift.

"Suddenly there was a loud noise and smoke shrouded our floor. All my colleagues were running for safety. In that moment I saw Shahin waiting for me so that we would run for safety together," she said.

Almost two weeks later, as she lay in a hospital bed recovering from a fractured skull and a damaged ear, Akhter heard that Shahin's body had been pulled from the twisted wreckage.

He was one of the 1,138 people killed. Another 2,000 people were injured.

"For days I could not believe he had died. We had so many plans. We had even gone to a marriage register's office to get married, only to decide we should wait for our families' consent," she said.

She was lucky to survive. Rescuers dragged her out of the rubble by tying a rope to her legs. She spent around 50 hours lying among bodies under the pan-caked floors of the building.

- Nightmare not over -

As Bangladesh and the world marks one year since the country's worst industrial disaster, some things have changed for the better in the industry, but the psychological wounds inflicted on survivors remain fresh.

In a community room metres from the flattened building site where Rana Plaza once stood, Akhter attends a counselling group run by therapists.

She is one among 20 victims being treated for grief and insecurity by the therapists hired by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and British charity ActionAid.

"It's the fourth batch of Rana Plaza victims we're counselling. And almost every one we've talked to suffers from varying degree of trauma," said lead therapist Obaidul Islam Munna.

"Most can't sleep in the night. They can't stand small noise. One girl even passed out the moment we used a loudspeaker. Many suffer from memory loss and smell bodies or see dead workers lying next to them.

"Some simply can't enter a multi-storied building," Munna explained.

- Pledges to improve -

Outside in the garment factories, some of the cheapest and most productive in the world, the tragedy of Rana Plaza has led to a sustained focus on improving working conditions that campaigners had decried for years.

The government has hiked minimum wages for the four million mostly women workers in the sector by 77 percent to $68 dollars a month and eased laws enabling the formation of trade unions.

It has upgraded its moribund factory inspection agency and announced the hiring of at least 200 new inspectors to try to prevent another major collapse or deadly fires which regularly kill workers.

Trade union leader Baharine Sultan said the improvements were due to intense international pressure from labour groups, the global media and Western retailers that have long benefitted from Bangladesh's cheap labour.

"But we have still a long way to go. Our workers are still paid some of the lowest wages on earth. They toil 10-12 hours a day.... Union activists still face intimidation and sometimes physical assault," he said.

Western retailers, fearing more bad publicity, have launched a massive inspection drive to weed out dangerous factories. More than a dozen plants have been shut and scores of others forced to upgrade.

They have also contributed $15 million to a $40-million Donor Trust Fund backed by the ILO to compensate the injured and the dependents of the deceased.

The first batch of 580 workers received their first cheques last month and the remaining 3,100 are set to be paid from the first anniversary of the disaster.

"The injured will be paid between $700 and $25,000 depending on the gravity of their injury," said Roy Ramesh, local head of global labour group IndustriALL. "All of them will be fully paid by end of this year."

The government has also paid compensation to more than 900 families of the dead workers and scores of amputated labourers.

- Unaccounted cost -

But cases abound of victims excluded from the compensation package, others whose injuries mean they will never work again, and still more whose suffering cannot be computed in lost earnings.

Yunus Ali Sardar, 44, a poor farmer from the country's west, was near Rana Plaza at the time of the accident and ran in to pull out trapped workers.

He saved the lives of three but before he could reach the fourth, a huge beam fell on him, leaving him paralysed in all four limbs and facing a life-time in bed as a tetra-plegic.

Because he was not a worker at the factory he is not eligible for compensation.

"Most of my savings are gone and I had to pull out my eldest daughter from school," he said from his bed at the Centre for the Rehabilitation of the Paralysed (CRP) hospital.

For her part, Akhter is desperately trying to forget the disaster while remembering her deceased partner.

"I did not marry Shahin because I wanted to contribute to my poor family. I am grateful to Allah that I've survived. Now I will stand on my own," she said. - AFP

Yangon (AFP) - Win Tin, one of the founders of Myanmar's pro-democracy opposition and the nation's longest-serving political prisoner, died Monday at the age of 84 after battling for decades to bring freedom to a nation that suffered under military rule.

The veteran campaigner, whose near two decades in jail failed to dull his commitment to the democratic cause, had suffered worsening ill health in recent weeks.

He died in hospital in Yangon early Monday, National League for Democracy party spokesman Nyan Win told AFP. A funeral service will be held on Wednesday.

A towering figure within the democracy movement, Win Tin formed the NLD with Aung San Suu Kyi in 1988 and was imprisoned the following year in the wake of a student-led pro-democracy uprising.

He reiterated his support for party leader Suu Kyi in the days before he died, according to his long-time assistant Yar Zar.

"We are so sad to have lost him -- it is like the world has been lost," he told AFP.

"But we have many things to do. We will continue as he asked and will follow his way to democracy," he added.

Myanmar began its emergence from nearly half a century of military rule in 2011, under a quasi-civilian government that has won international plaudits for reforms including the release of hundreds of political prisoners.

Suu Kyi, who was freed from years of house arrest in 2010, has also been welcomed into parliament at the helm of her party and has indicated her wish to become president after 2015 elections.

But the army retains a tight grip on the fledgling parliament, casting doubt over Suu Kyi's chances for the top job, and campaigners stress there is still a long way to go before the country can enjoy full democracy.

- Political prisoner -

Win Tin was freed by the former military junta from Yangon's notorious Insein prison as part of an amnesty in September 2008.

During his imprisonment he was interrogated for up to five days at a time, deprived of sleep, hooded and beaten, and said torture at the hands of the authorities was routine.

From 1996 he was also kept in solitary confinement, allowed only fleeting 15 minute visits from family every two weeks.

On the day of his release he walked out of jail still wearing his blue prison uniform because he did not believe he would really be freed.

Last year he told AFP that he continued to wear a blue shirt in solidarity with dissidents still in jail and to show the world that his country was still not truly free.

"Although I was released five years ago, I feel like I'm still in prison," he said.

Myanmar's junta once kept about 2,000 political opponents, dissidents and journalists in jail.

The country has held a series of high profile political prisoner releases under President Thein Sein, a former general-turned-reformer whose administration has claimed it has now freed all dissidents.

But rights groups say authorities have continued to lock up activists, mainly for protesting without permission.

Win Tin began his career as a journalist working as a night editor at the Agence France-Presse bureau in Yangon in the early 1950s soon after Myanmar won its independence from British colonial rule.

After three years with AFP he moved to the Netherlands, where he spent three years.

In 1962, General Ne Win seized power in a coup and plunged the country into tyranny.

"The reason I became a politician is because of military governments. They put pressure on us. They seized the newspapers and publishing houses. As I have many contacts in politics, I reached into politics," he told AFP last year.

Savar (Bangladesh) (AFP) - Minu Akhter has not slept properly for a year. Every time there's a noise, she wakes up fearing the roof will cave in. She can't go to the upper floors of a building in case the staircase gives way.

Since the collapse of Rana Plaza garment factory complex just outside the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka, the 23-year-old has struggled to control her emotions. Every time she thinks of her boyfriend, tears roll down her cheeks.

When the nine-storey building failed almost 12 months ago, Akhter was cutting clothing to make trousers at the doomed Phantom Apparels factory which had an order from an Italian retailer, she remembers.

On that morning, April 24, 2013, her boyfriend of five years Shahin was on the other side of the aisle on the fourth floor of the complex. They smiled as they started the day's gruelling 11-hour shift.

"Suddenly there was a loud noise and smoke shrouded our floor. All my colleagues were running for safety. In that moment I saw Shahin waiting for me so that we would run for safety together," she said.

Almost two weeks later, as she lay in a hospital bed recovering from a fractured skull and a damaged ear, Akhter heard that Shahin's body had been pulled from the twisted wreckage.

He was one of the 1,138 people killed. Another 2,000 people were injured.

"For days I could not believe he had died. We had so many plans. We had even gone to a marriage register's office to get married, only to decide we should wait for our families' consent," she said.

She was lucky to survive. Rescuers dragged her out of the rubble by tying a rope to her legs. She spent around 50 hours lying among bodies under the pan-caked floors of the building.

- Nightmare not over -

As Bangladesh and the world marks one year since the country's worst industrial disaster, some things have changed for the better in the industry, but the psychological wounds inflicted on survivors remain fresh.

In a community room metres from the flattened building site where Rana Plaza once stood, Akhter attends a counselling group run by therapists.

She is one among 20 victims being treated for grief and insecurity by the therapists hired by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and British charity ActionAid.

"It's the fourth batch of Rana Plaza victims we're counselling. And almost every one we've talked to suffers from varying degree of trauma," said lead therapist Obaidul Islam Munna.

"Most can't sleep in the night. They can't stand small noise. One girl even passed out the moment we used a loudspeaker. Many suffer from memory loss and smell bodies or see dead workers lying next to them.

"Some simply can't enter a multi-storied building," Munna explained.

- Pledges to improve -

Outside in the garment factories, some of the cheapest and most productive in the world, the tragedy of Rana Plaza has led to a sustained focus on improving working conditions that campaigners had decried for years.

The government has hiked minimum wages for the four million mostly women workers in the sector by 77 percent to $68 dollars a month and eased laws enabling the formation of trade unions.

It has upgraded its moribund factory inspection agency and announced the hiring of at least 200 new inspectors to try to prevent another major collapse or deadly fires which regularly kill workers.

Trade union leader Baharine Sultan said the improvements were due to intense international pressure from labour groups, the global media and Western retailers that have long benefitted from Bangladesh's cheap labour.

"But we have still a long way to go. Our workers are still paid some of the lowest wages on earth. They toil 10-12 hours a day.... Union activists still face intimidation and sometimes physical assault," he said.

Western retailers, fearing more bad publicity, have launched a massive inspection drive to weed out dangerous factories. More than a dozen plants have been shut and scores of others forced to upgrade.

They have also contributed $15 million to a $40-million Donor Trust Fund backed by the ILO to compensate the injured and the dependents of the deceased.

The first batch of 580 workers received their first cheques last month and the remaining 3,100 are set to be paid from the first anniversary of the disaster.

"The injured will be paid between $700 and $25,000 depending on the gravity of their injury," said Roy Ramesh, local head of global labour group IndustriALL. "All of them will be fully paid by end of this year."

The government has also paid compensation to more than 900 families of the dead workers and scores of amputated labourers.

- Unaccounted cost -

But cases abound of victims excluded from the compensation package, others whose injuries mean they will never work again, and still more whose suffering cannot be computed in lost earnings.

Yunus Ali Sardar, 44, a poor farmer from the country's west, was near Rana Plaza at the time of the accident and ran in to pull out trapped workers.

He saved the lives of three but before he could reach the fourth, a huge beam fell on him, leaving him paralysed in all four limbs and facing a life-time in bed as a tetra-plegic.

Because he was not a worker at the factory he is not eligible for compensation.

"Most of my savings are gone and I had to pull out my eldest daughter from school," he said from his bed at the Centre for the Rehabilitation of the Paralysed (CRP) hospital.

For her part, Akhter is desperately trying to forget the disaster while remembering her deceased partner.

"I did not marry Shahin because I wanted to contribute to my poor family. I am grateful to Allah that I've survived. Now I will stand on my own," she said. - AFP

Yangon (AFP) - Win Tin, one of the founders of Myanmar's pro-democracy opposition and the nation's longest-serving political prisoner, died Monday at the age of 84 after battling for decades to bring freedom to a nation that suffered under military rule.

The veteran campaigner, whose near two decades in jail failed to dull his commitment to the democratic cause, had suffered worsening ill health in recent weeks.

He died in hospital in Yangon early Monday, National League for Democracy party spokesman Nyan Win told AFP. A funeral service will be held on Wednesday.

A towering figure within the democracy movement, Win Tin formed the NLD with Aung San Suu Kyi in 1988 and was imprisoned the following year in the wake of a student-led pro-democracy uprising.

He reiterated his support for party leader Suu Kyi in the days before he died, according to his long-time assistant Yar Zar.

"We are so sad to have lost him -- it is like the world has been lost," he told AFP.

"But we have many things to do. We will continue as he asked and will follow his way to democracy," he added.

Myanmar began its emergence from nearly half a century of military rule in 2011, under a quasi-civilian government that has won international plaudits for reforms including the release of hundreds of political prisoners.

Suu Kyi, who was freed from years of house arrest in 2010, has also been welcomed into parliament at the helm of her party and has indicated her wish to become president after 2015 elections.

But the army retains a tight grip on the fledgling parliament, casting doubt over Suu Kyi's chances for the top job, and campaigners stress there is still a long way to go before the country can enjoy full democracy.

- Political prisoner -

Win Tin was freed by the former military junta from Yangon's notorious Insein prison as part of an amnesty in September 2008.

During his imprisonment he was interrogated for up to five days at a time, deprived of sleep, hooded and beaten, and said torture at the hands of the authorities was routine.

From 1996 he was also kept in solitary confinement, allowed only fleeting 15 minute visits from family every two weeks.

On the day of his release he walked out of jail still wearing his blue prison uniform because he did not believe he would really be freed.

Last year he told AFP that he continued to wear a blue shirt in solidarity with dissidents still in jail and to show the world that his country was still not truly free.

"Although I was released five years ago, I feel like I'm still in prison," he said.

Myanmar's junta once kept about 2,000 political opponents, dissidents and journalists in jail.

The country has held a series of high profile political prisoner releases under President Thein Sein, a former general-turned-reformer whose administration has claimed it has now freed all dissidents.

But rights groups say authorities have continued to lock up activists, mainly for protesting without permission.

Win Tin began his career as a journalist working as a night editor at the Agence France-Presse bureau in Yangon in the early 1950s soon after Myanmar won its independence from British colonial rule.

After three years with AFP he moved to the Netherlands, where he spent three years.

In 1962, General Ne Win seized power in a coup and plunged the country into tyranny.

"The reason I became a politician is because of military governments. They put pressure on us. They seized the newspapers and publishing houses. As I have many contacts in politics, I reached into politics," he told AFP last year.

Jakarta (AFP) - Jakarta called on governments Monday to stop "shifting responsibility" for asylum-seekers, in veiled criticism of Australia's hardline policy of towing boatloads of would-be refugees back to Indonesia.

The military-led operation has caused anger in Indonesia, which has been forced to take back seven boatloads of asylum-seekers turned around by the Australian navy since December.

At the opening of an international meeting on asylum-seekers in Jakarta, Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa said countries should stand by commitments to cooperate on the issue made at a conference last year.

"For Indonesia the message is crystal-clear -- the cross-border and complex nature of irregular movement of persons defies... national solution."

Asylum-seekers have for years used Indonesia as a transit point to cross to Australia, usually on rickety fishing boats. More than 1,000 asylum-seekers have died at sea in recent years attempting the perilous journey.

Tony Abbott came to power last year at the head of a conservative government in Australia on the back of a pledge to stem the flow of asylum-seekers, and has implemented the tough border protection policies.

His government says they are working, claiming that no asylum-seekers arriving by boat have set foot on Australian soil since December.

The UN refugee agency said last week the number of asylum-seekers registering in Indonesia had dropped dramatically since December, from around 100 a day to 100 a week.

The Abbott administration retained the policy of the former government of sending all asylum-seekers arriving by boat to Papua New Guinea or Nauru -- for permanent resettlement there if judged to be refugees.

Natalegawa acknowledged Monday the policies may have helped reduce the loss of life at sea between the two countries, but reiterated his opposition to them.

"We need to take the politics out of this whole endeavour," he said, adding there must be alternative ways of stopping the flow of asylum-seekers.

Australia was represented at the meeting by officials from its Jakarta embassy, but they made no comment at the opening.

The two-day International Workshop on the Protection of the Irregular Movement of Persons at Sea, attended by senior officials from 14 countries, is co-chaired by Indonesia and the United Nations refugee agency.

Atop the pack of nominees are Las Vegas rockers Imagine Dragons and 17-year-old New Zealand pop prodigy Lorde, who both scored 12 nods.

Imagine Dragons and Lorde dominated radio last year with inescapable hits. The quintet's Grammy-winning smash Radioactive made Billboard history in February after spending a record-breaking 77 weeks on the trade publication's Hot 100 chart and Lorde's biting, yet ubiquitous, hit Royals nabbed her the honour of being the youngest artiste to win song of the year at the Grammys.

The two will square off in nine categories, including Hot 100 artiste, digital song, radio songs artiste, top rock artiste and rock album. Lorde is also up for new artiste against Capital Cities, Ariana Grande and Passenger.

Timberlake scored 11 nods, including top artiste and Billboard 200 album for his comeback opus, The 20/20 Experience (the two-part album even competes with itself in the R&B album category). Perry is up for 10, including top artiste, top female and Hot 100 artiste, and breakout Seattle hip-hop duo Macklemore & Ryan Lewis are in the running for eight trophies.

Cyrus, whose transition from Disney princess to urban pop provocateur has yet to pay off with any actual awards, could see her luck reversed on the Billboard stage. The headline-grabber is up for nine, including top artiste, top female, Hot 100 artiste and top streaming artiste.

Finalists for Billboard's Milestone award, which was launched last year to honour musical ingenuity and innovation (Justin Bieber won the inaugural fan-voted award to mostly jeers) are Imagine Dragons, John Legend, Luke Bryan, OneRepublic, Ellie Goulding and Carrie Underwood. The six finalists will be whittled down to three and fans logging their votes online can also enter a contest to present the honour alongside Kelly Rowland during the telecast.

Other notable nominees include Beyonce, whose surprise album is up for a slew of honours, Pharrell Williams, Robin Thicke, Luke Bryan and Eminem. The 2014 Billboard Music Awards will be held at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on May 18. – Los Angeles Times/McClatchy-Tribune Information Services

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